An analysis of Beaver Indian and Alaskan Eskimo myths ...

• Main Author: Marach, Veronica
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Subjects: eskimo*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0094151; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0094151

The methods of analysis of Pierre and Elli Kongas Maranda, Robert P. Armstrong and Vladimir Propp were tested by applying them to two sets of corpora. The corpora consist of ten Beaver Indian myths and ten Alaskan Eskimo myths. The abstracts generated by each method of analysis were then compared and contrasted with each other. The introduction delimited the field of oral tradition, especially that of myth and presented a historical discussion of the methods of folkloric analysis commencing with functionalism. The three methods of analysis were compared with Piaget's theory of structuralism. Each method was also discussed in terms of Levi-Strauss' definition of logic. Each analyst's method of determining the component parts of a myth were examined. Finally the introduction included an outline of conclusions reached in this study, and posed several questions, the answers' to which became apparent in the succeeding chapters. The three chapters following the introduction were Propp's, Armstrong's and the ...